Small Business Feature
Green Bay Cookie Co.
The Greater Green Bay Chamber defines any business with less than 50 employees as a small business. Small businesses make up more than 80% of our membership base, and we are proud to offer them support and resources through programming, events and workspaces.
This blog post is part of a monthly series highlighting the small businesses in our community. Learn more about Green Bay Cookie Co. in this Q&A with Owner, Erika Dunne.
Tell us about Green Bay Cookie Co. What services do you offer? Who is your audience?
“Green Bay Cookie Co. has definitely changed over the last 3 1/2 years. What started out as a custom sugar cookie business has turned into a gourmet NYC cookie storefront/custom sugar cookie business. Our audience has now become every and all cookie lovers, as we offer a wide variety and assortment of cookie flavors you cannot get anywhere else. However, we still maintain our very large sugar cookie business, which does custom orders for people wanting celebration cookies for baby showers, birthdays, weddings, etc. along with extremely large corporate logo orders.”
When was Green Bay Cookie Co. established?
“In 2022, I started The Tattered Whisk which was solely a custom sugar cookie business built out of my home bakery in my basement. Last year, in December 2024, I opened Green Bay Cookie Co. After a summer of doing nighttime markets and starting to sell large gourmet NYC cookies, I realized when the markets ended that I needed to place to continue to sell and my business had just grown so much exponentially that I could no longer continue doing this out of my basement bakery. So, I took the plunge and opened up the storefront.”
Why did you decide to start Green Bay Cookie Co.?
“In 2022, I had just turned 40 and really just wanted something just for me. I’m a mom of 7. My twin girls were 6 months old at the time I started this business, and I was just looking for something to do that was mine, outside of the kids, and an outlet for me. So, I took a little online cookie decorating class, turned out to be pretty good at it, started a website, gave out samples, and orders started coming in. I never dreamed it would turn into what it has as a full-blown brick-and-mortar business in the great city of Green Bay.”
How would you describe your journey as a business owner?
“In one word, ‘crazy.’ I never imagined when I started with zero clients and zero orders that in only a few short years, I’d be doing thousands and thousands of cookies every week. I never imagined opening a store. It never crossed my mind when I started. It’s just been a crazy journey and a very, very successful journey, but that success has come with sacrifice. I miss out on things with my kids, somedays are very long, I am not a stay at home mom like I was before, as I’m at the shop everyday. Finding the work/life balance has been the most challenging part since opening the store. However, I am getting way better at it, and this next year I will be even more successful in balancing both sides of my life. I’m really proud of that progress.”
What has been the most rewarding moment for you as a business owner?
“That’s a hard question. I feel like those moments come in the small, but really important, moments of the great cookie reviews people take the time out of their day to leave, expressing their love for our cookies, and then in the bigger moments of doing cookies for celebrity’s and large organizations like Taylor Swift, the Green Bay Packers, Associated Bank, Lil Wayne, etc.”
What has been the most challenging part of owning a business?
“The most challenging part for me as a mom with 7 kids is finding the work/life balance. Having to work long hours some days and not leaving the shop on time makes my time away from my kids longer, and I hate that. I’m really working on only working in ‘normal’ business hours the best I can. We are closed Mondays, so that’s my day to pick up the kids and spend the afternoon with them. We get icees, hit Target or the dollar store, and grab some fun little things. I try and make it fun. They know it’s mom’s day. It’s important to them, and I just want to balance out my time in the store and my time with my family better. It’s a work in progress.
The second most challenging aspect is just being a small business and wearing a million hats. I am the baker, creator, social media manager, website manager, front of the house, cashier, packager, product manager, shipping manager, answer all the comments and emails, etc. Wearing all those hats gets tiring. I am working on letting some of that go and have hired help with a baking assistant which is amazing. Even the part-time hours she is in has made a huge difference! But again, it’s all about finding the balance with these things, and it’s always a work in progress.”
Who has been the most influential person to you as a business owner?
“You know, I don’t really have someone that inspires me. To be honest, it would be me. I really try to focus on myself and inspire myself with new ideas and the best work ethic. I pride myself on my work ethic. No one can work like I do, and I’m really proud of that. I have really perfected my craft and work my butt off everyday. When I’m working, I’m going as fast as I can to get everything I need to done to get back to my kids. I’m 100% ALL day. I don’t take a lunch, a break, I just work. I can do the work of 10 people, and until recently, I did this all by myself. I guess my kids inspire me, because I just want to give them a mom that they are proud of and show them what hard work looks like and how hard work pays off if you give it all you have everyday.”
What are you the most excited about as you look to the future of Green Bay Cookie Co.?
“I’m most excited about the growth of Green Bay Cookie Co. Last December, I opened the store full-time, 5 days a week, with zero experience of running a store and zero idea what that would look like. I started with maybe 6-10 flavors, it was just me, and it was a lot that first month. December is already a hard month, because I do thousands of sugar cookies every week. So, keeping up with those orders, making large gourmet cookies to stock the store, stocking the store with sugar cookie holiday options, and running the store myself was all new and got a little crazy.
Last year, I worked every day in December until past midnight. This year, I have a new employee (which is so awesome and is beyond helpful to get everything we need to done)! I have experience now, and it is just so much easier than last year. The growth in one year of Green Bay Cookie Co. from starting with 6-10 flavors to now offering over 50 rotating in flavors – we have special holiday flavors, we offer corporate cookie boxes and cookie platters this year. It’s just crazy what this business has accomplished in a year, and I look forward to that continuing and expanding into different products. It’s always evolving, and that’s really the best part, watching and being in this little cookie business evolution.”
How can people find Green Bay Cookie Co.?
Come visit us at:
940 Hansen Rd, Ste E
Green Bay, WI 54304
Find us online at:
Website: www.greenbaycookieco.com
Facebook: @greenbaycookieco
Instagram: @greenbaycookieco
